Parenting/Motherhood

3 Ways to Promote Resiliency – How CEOs and Moms Can Be Better Role Models

Posted by on Nov 26, 2018 | 0 comments

What do many new leaders of growing companies and adolescent girls have in common? They are both facing demands that leave them overwhelmed, riddled with anxiety, and at risk for burnout. My two teens girls are growing up in a world in which they are expected to excel in every dimension. They must win at academics and extracurriculars, but that’s not all — they must also have perfect bodies and be liked by everyone. The result, too often, is overwhelm, self-criticism, and anxiety. This sounds like a lot of emerging leaders I coach, male and female, on whom the demands are overwhelming...

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I love my children, but….. (confessions from a mom’s business trip)

Posted by on Dec 3, 2012 | 0 comments

I really loved my trip to New York. A lot. My vacation … er, …. I mean,  business trip, I mean, began the moment I arrived at the airport and got a copy of the New York Times. On the plane, my economy-plus seat might have been a poolside chaise-lounge for all the enjoyment I took of the five-hour flight — a golden opportunity to read, doze, and work without interruption. Bliss. From my arrival in The City, my schedule was busy and full. I had meetings with clients and potential clients throughout the days and social engagements shoehorned in between times and in the...

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From The Obvious Files: Get More Sleep (+ Some Tips)

Posted by on Sep 26, 2012 | 0 comments

This morning, I watched my beloved and bleary-eyed husband pour orange juice into his empty bowl. When the kids and I started howling with laughter, he realized what he was doing, grinned, and spooned his oatmeal into his glass and sat down to eat, slurping juice from the bowl and eating oatmeal with a fork from the glass (I love this man). Not usually absent-minded, he was in a fog this morning because he had been up with our wakeful daughter from about 2:30-4:00 a.m. last night (yet another reason for parenthetical above). He’s also been pulling late nights and then getting up early,...

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Summer Camp is a Big Step for Parents, Too

Posted by on Jul 4, 2012 | 2 comments

On Sunday we delivered our nine-year-old daughter to the bus that will take her to sleep-away camp for the first time.  It was far from a tearful goodbye – she was first in line to get on and gave me a warm but brief hug before boarding. I smiled bravely and waved at the tinted glass windows, not knowing if she was even looking, and she was gone. My husband, not fooled by my brisk exterior, squeezed my hand as we returned to the car with our younger two children. He had seen tears running down my cheeks as we drove across the Bay Bridge on our way to the bus stop, and of course he was...

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Having It All Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up to Be

Posted by on Jun 28, 2012 | 0 comments

What do we mean by “having it all,” anyway? What ever happened to “enough”? Anne-Marie Slaughter’s Atlantic Monthly article, which I already blogged about earlier this week, asserts that we are lying to young women when we tell them that they can have it all. Instead of blaming women’s lack of ambition, Slaughter, former Director of Policy Planning at the State Department, recommends sensible and forward-thinking changes in workplace policy and culture that would improve the potential for women (and men) to achieve professional success without sacrificing family. I...

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Men Don’t Have It All, Either

Posted by on Jun 25, 2012 | 1 comment

Anne-Marie Slaughter’s heavily Tweeted cover story in the current issue of the Atlantic Monthly, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All” publicly and very personally acknowledges what most women in the corporate trenches already know: it is incredibly difficult to climb the professional ladder and be a hands-on mother.  I agree. What I take issue with is not her contention that women can’t have it all, but the implication that men can. Yes, women are wildly under-represented in the corridors of power and over-represented on the carpool circuit. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that the men...

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